The LBAM, Epiphyas postvittana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is an important horticultural pest both in its native and introduced habitats in Australia, New Zealand, USA, and the UK. LBAM is best known as a pest insect from tree fruits, including apples, pears, citrus, peaches, nectarines, apricots, vines, berryfruit, and to a lesser extent from forestry, vegetable, and flower crops. LBAM larvae feed on leaves and the surface of fruit typically by webbing a leaf to a fruit to create a protected shelter. This causes unsightly blemishes on fruit and can lead to secondary disease, such as causing rots in crops such as grapes.
For most lepidopterous species, reproductive behavior consists of the female releasing a volatile sex pheromone that elicits upwind flight in males of the same species. The males orient to the source to effect copulation. Since most lepidopterous species use many of the same pheromone compounds for sexual communication, multi-component blends can be critical for species specificity (El-Sayed, 2010).
Sex pheromones can be used to control lepidopterous populations in a variety of ways including attracting the insects to traps or poisons and disrupting their mating.
The sex pheromone of the LBAM was initially identified as a two-component blend of (E)-11-tetradecenyl acetate (E11-14Ac) and (E,E)-9,11-tetradecadienyl acetate (E9E11-14Ac), (Bellas et al., 1983).
It was found that the peak male catch occurred when a 100:5 ratio of E11-14Ac and E9E11-14Ac respectively was used.
Further work on the sex pheromone of this insect provided no evidence for the involvement of additional compounds in the mating signal, although Foster and Roelofs (1990) found the saturated 14Ac compound to be present in glands at about 10%. However, Muggleston and Foster (1989) found no evidence of a behavioral role for this compound in wind tunnel assays.
The habitat of the LBAM continues to expand, with insects now confirmed in California and Europe. It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved pheromone composition, or to at least provide the public with a useful choice.
The invention relates generally to a pheromone composition comprising four components: (E)-11-tetradecenyl acetate (E11-14Ac), (E,E)-9,11-tetradecadienyl acetate (E9E11-14Ac), (E)-11-tetradecen-1-ol (E11-14OH) and (E)-11-hexadecenyl acetate (E11-16Ac).